Welcome to 2015, Team 8!
by QueenyKiba
Summary: Shino is looking forward to a quiet new year's event, though Kiba has other plans. Team 8 celebrate New Years to welcome a band new, well, year.


Welcome to 2015, Team 8!

Shino is looking forward to a quiet new year's event, though Kiba has other plans. Team 8 celebrate New Years to welcome a band new, well, year.

–

Kiba loved parties.

He was good at them, too. Talking easily with anyone and laughing even easier, there was always some new name Shino and Hinata hasn't heard of before when he was telling them about his week. He was just a sociable, likeable person, and they wouldn't have him any other way. When it came to parties, the Inuzuka were famous for talking, drinking and dancing with the best. It was rumoured they could even give a Suna nin a run for their money. Where a party was being thrown, Inuzuka Kiba was bound to be invited.

Kiba did, however, drag Shino and Hinata to those parties.

Shino and Hinata were _not_ good at parties. They were too quiet, awkward, and didn't really want to talk to new people. They'd much rather hole up together and knit Kiba something, rather than go out some place they'd never heard of with him for the whole night. Somehow, much to their dismay, people had realised that Kiba would much rather spend a boring night in with them than go some place they wouldn't be.

People had then told Uzumaki Naruto, who had decided he would throw the best New Year's Eve party in Konoha, and needed Kiba there to do it. Any party that had Kiba would surely have his cousins, who happily gate-crashed where ever they leader's son would be, and then the festivities would no doubt become something to remember. To do all that, however, Naruto needed Shino and Hinata.

"It's one night," He pleaded, trying to give Shino his most sincere look.

"No," Shino replied.

"I'll pay you back!"

"Gross." Shino was resolute. Team 8 would be spending the night in with their sensei, maybe some cake, and certainly together. As a team. Shino's father and Kiba's mother were on a mission together, and the Hyuuga were holding their own New Year's event, that Hinata would make a brief appearance at before heading over to their sensei's apartment.

Naruto would not go back on his word to have THE BEST NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY IN KONOHA. "I'll- I'll take Hinata out on a date!" He finally realised, actually slamming a fist into his palm at his genius.

Shino calmly punched him in the face.

–

Kiba was startled to open his front door to the insistent knocking on it and suddenly be face-to-face with Hatake Kakashi, who was holding a bleeding Naruto, in front of a sullen-looking Shino.

"Kiba! Good to see you! May we have a word?"

Kiba sniffed, gave Shino a look, and stepped aside.

"Fanks," Naruto said thickly, before he was whisked off into the bathroom.

Kiba shut the door behind Shino and grabbed his shoulder before he could make a beeline for the back door. "What the Goddamn Hell?" He growled out, pushing him into the lounge room.

Shino brushed his hand off and sat on the couch he was so familiar with, in his accustomed spot. "I only it him a little."

Kiba spluttered; "_You_ did that? You _hit_ him? Why?"

Shino shrugged. "He was using Hinata's affections as a bargaining chip."

"And he won't do it again!" Kakashi said cheerfully from the doorway. Naruto grinned a little, shoulders hunched and a big bandage on his darkening nose.

"I just wanted you to come to the New Year's party I'm throwing," He explained to Kiba. Shino bristled at how indignant he sounded.

Kiba crossed his arms, gave Naruto a stern look, and said; "Sure, why not. ONE CONDITION," He added loudly over Naruto's sudden cry of victory and the beginning of Shino's lecture. "Shino can come too." Naruto's arm's dropped. "And Hinata." He looked a bit off-put now. "And I get to punch you as hard as a physically can in the face, too."

"What? No way!" Naruto squawked, cowering behind his hands.

"You think you can just say whatever you Goddamn want, huh? Think you can go 'round insulting the sweetest girl I know? Think you're hot shit, huh? Oi, Kakashi," Kiba piped up suddenly, "It's fair game if a guy insults your girl, ay?"

Naruto's eyes widened at the implication.

"I don't see why not," Kakashi said easily. "Your first aid kit, anyway."

"Sweet," Kiba growled, eyes alight, almost yellow, as he raised a fist.

Naruto screamed.

–

"Okay!" Kiba said joyously, happily seeing Kakashi and a mumbling Naruto off at the door. "See you at ten!" He waved from the doorway as they went back down his mother's garden path.

Shino slammed the door shut. "What the _Hell_, Kiba?" He hissed, looming over him. Kiba didn't seem too worried. "We're spending New Year's with _Kurenai_. We have prior arrangements!"

Kiba crossed his arms. "Nah, actually. Kurenai double-booked us on accident."

"What."

Kiba unzipped his leather jacket and threw it on the couch, grinning. "Yeah. She knew it would hurt your feelings, so I offered to lead you off-course by having a pit-stop at Naruto's without ever continuing on."

Shino rubbed his arm, and Kiba frowned, coming up to him to hear what he had to say. "… Could've just said so."

Kiba grinned, this time slightly sheepish. "Yeah, and she was gonna, but then I said I'd do it, and then I decided to do _this,_ and now-"

"-Now I feel stupid. I hope you're happy." Kiba's eyes widened and he threw his arms around Shino's neck, pulling his down towards his face a little when it looked like he was going to storm out and leave.

"Hey. Hey! I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry. It was my idea and it was a bad one. I'm sorry." Shino stopped struggling. "Hey, if you want, you can have a free hit, too! Go on!" He threw his arms out wide and tilted his chin up proudly.

Shino straightened up, drew back a fist, and nudged his cheek with it. "And ruin your best asset? You brainless idiot; I'm mad at you, I don't want to wreck your life," He explained to Kiba's grinning face.

Kiba just puckered up at him. "Wanna make out at midnight?"

"Not right now I don't." But he was smiling. Kiba could hear it.

Kiba lifted his shirt slightly, showing off a toned, hairy stomach. "What if I'm drenched in champagne at the time?"

"… Maybe." Kiba threw the hem of his shirt back down, laughing.

–

Hinata flushed up red when Kiba related the story to her at 10:13pm, as they walked off the main road towards Kiba's apartment.

"Sorry," Shino muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose in embarrassment.

Hinata clapped her hands over her mouth to stifle her laughter. "It's okay… thank you for sticking up for me, Shino," She said sincerely.

"Hey, what about me?" Kiba asked, turning back around to her and grabbing her hand, eager for praise.

"You shouldn't hit people so easily, Kiba! It's just no good!" She said with a smile, unable to hold her serious façade as his face dropped into an indignant huff. Shino pushed his shoulder to keep him moving.

"So, you were saying something about Hanabi and your father's intended formal wear?" Shino prodded. Hinata grinned a little.

–

"KIBA! You made it!" Naruto threw his arms around the Inuzuka. His grinning face was perfectly healed; no hint that he'd been punched in the face twice and should have had a very dark bruise on his cheek and nose. Shino sighed. "Hey Hinata! … Shino," He said after a beat, quickly looking away. Shino perked up a bit again. "Oh, Kiba! There's someone I want you to meet!" As Naruto dragged Kiba off, Shino gave the arm he had around Kiba's waist and the hand he'd grabbed with a careful eye.

"I think Kiba's going to get another boy in a gay panic," He observed.

"What?" Hinata asked loudly over the music, her face screwed up a little.

Shino just shook his head and grabbed her elbow, steering her into the crowd. He said a polite hello to Chouji as they walked up to the table for drinks.

"Straighty-one eighty, huh?" He asked as he passed Shino nothing but the coke.

"What was that?" Shino asked back over the music. Chouji just waved a hand to tell him to forget it.

After catching up a bit and then saying goodbye, Shino steered Hinata, who had asked for a bit too much in her cup, to a corner to wait the night out. He checked the time. It was about 10:47pm at this point.

"Taken," A voice said suddenly. Shino and Hinata gave Uchiha Sasuke an equal look of surprise. He shrugged a little. "I mean, you can sit if you want but I'm not moving."

Shino glanced around, and noticed that the area was unusually devoid of people. Like it had been quarantined.

Hinata sat, and gave Sasuke a cheery nod. He flicked his eyebrows up, and she turned nervously to glance at Shino. After a beat, he sat next to her, and fished around in his overcoat for a moment. His hand resurfaced a moment later with two pairs of needles already tangled up in knitting.

–

By 11:20pm, Sasuke had inched over and was talking quite nicely with Hinata, neither of them minding that Sasuke was watching her knit and their pauses were very long. Kiba's cousins were also running about, laughing, dancing, kissing pretty srangers. Shino, for his part, ignored them, hit needles clicking aggressively as he watching Kiba, shirt undone almost all the way open, climb onto a table some ways away and start swinging his hips sexually.

"He's a good dancer," Sasuke said mildly.

Hinata nodded her head. "Kiba's always loved dancing like that. Did you know he tried to do that kind of dancing at our Spring Festival?" Shino assumed 'our' meant 'Hyuuga'. Actually, he didn't even have to assume. "Shino was there, too! Do you remember, Shino, when Kiba pulled you onto the dance floor and started, uh, he did that-"

"Started grinding on me? Yes," He muttered. His father had even been there.

"Kiba's very lively if you give him something to drink," She told Sasuke.

Sasuke seemed to be deciding if he should laugh or not. "That's one way to put it." There was another long pause. "So, how many rows have you done now?" Shino observed the way Sasuke's eyes kept drifting from Hinata's knitting to Hinata's face, and wished that he was at Kurenai's 'mummy and me: baby's first fireworks' event after all.

–

At 11:47pm, Kiba tracked them down, his shirt fully open and smelling strongly of over-sweet fruit and vodka. "Hinata! Shino! Darlings!" He fell heavily on Shino and started sucking on his ear. Shino pushed him off as he tucked his knitting away.

"Hello, Kiba. Getting ready for the fireworks?" He asked, holding his hand out for Hinata's knitting. When she didn't hand it to him, he slapped Kiba's hands away from the snaps of his undercoat and took it from her limp hands. She was almost talking too animatedly with Sasuke to notice, and turned to him as he tugged the wool from her grasp. "Roof. Fireworks," He said to her, a little quieter since the music had been turned down.

Kiba was singing loudly as he swung their hands and headed out the door and up the stairs, Hinata following along, laughing at something Sasuke had said. Shino glanced back at her, caught Sasuke's shy return smile, and pointedly faced forward again, pulling Kiba's hand out of his back pocket sternly as he did so. Kiba sniggered into Shino's shoulder, and Shino tried not to smile.

–

It was 11:57pm by the time they got to the roof. Kiba pulled them back, towards the opposite side from where the fireworks would be set off at the Hokage mountain. It was much less crowded. Shino waved to a few stray Inuzuka who spotted them. Sasuke stayed next to Hinata, despite the fact Naruto seemed to be looking for him.

"You won't count down with Naruto?" Hinata asked him.

Sasuke shrugged. "Too crowded… he'll be fine."

"What about Sakura?"

"Her parents are having a party themselves, so she's not at this one." Hinata laughed as Sasuke told her about how Naruto had made such a scene when she'd told them that they got kicked out of the Hokage's tower.

Kiba leaned heavily against Shino's arm, holding his hand. He let out a big sigh that Shino raised his eyebrows about. "What's that?"

Kiba shrugged, staring blearily at the ground. "I dunno, just… you feel like we accomplished much this year?"

Shino thought. "… We escorted that boy to his parents in Grass, remember that? And his parents cried and gave us that huge tip."

"Yeah! That was friggin' wild."

"We helped those ANBU find one of their masks."

"Hah! I bet he hasn't lived that down yet."

"…I made us all new sweaters."

Kiba squeezed his hand. "It's real warm, too." He sighed again, but it wasn't as heavy as the first one. "This year wasn't bad."

"It wasn't," Shino agreed.

"I spent it with you guys, so… can't be bad then!" Shino glanced down at Kiba's grinning face and leaned it a little. Much to his surprise, Kiba put a hand over his mouth, stopping him from kissing him. He winked. "Wait 'til the countdown, big boy."

Shino hit his arm.

People started to shout; "25! 24! 23! 22! 21 20!"

Laughing, Kiba swung around Shino so that he was in-between his two team mate's grabbing them around their waists as they joined in. "14! 13! 12! 11! 10!"

"9!" Shino held the hand Kiba had on his waist.

"8!" Hinata was whispering something to Sasuke, red-faced.

"7!" Sasuke, also flushed, nodded hard.

"6!" Shino glanced at Kiba, who had his eyes focused on the sky.

"5!" Kiba looked back at him, and grinned.

"4!" Shino slid his other arm around Kiba's shoulders.

"3!" Kiba's eyes were alight with mischief.

"2!" Shino allowed it.

"_**1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!**_" Shino bent in and Kiba kissed him as the fireworks were set off. Kiba pulled back, grinning and red-faced from more than just alcohol, and hugged him. Shino rubbed his hands across his shoulders, laughing. It seemed they were equally determined to be each other's first kiss of 2015. Shino glanced up to wish Hinata a happy new year and gasped very loudly, alerting Kiba, who immediately turned around.

Sasuke and Hinata were _kissing_; her arms were around his neck as he held her waist. They broke apart, smiling and laughing, but then started kissing again.

"Fuck," Kiba sighed, his head thumping back against Shino's chest.

Shino rubbed across his neck comfortingly. "At least you were my first," He offered in condolences. Kiba nodded sadly, and Shino chuckled.

"_SASUKE! _Happy-!" Naruto stopped short in front of them, having come around from Kiba and Shino's other side to finally see what Sasuke was doing.

Sasuke and Hinata jerked apart like they'd been electrocuted, staring wide-eyed at Naruto. Their arms dropped immediately, Hinata inching closer to Kiba, who wrapped an arm around her waist immediately, trying to tilt her face up from his neck for a kiss. Shino hit his arm.

"That wasn't what it looked like," Sasuke said immediately, as Naruto stared coming towards him, still looking gobsmacked. "It was new year's, y'know? New years," He repeated, looking embarrassed.

Shino glanced at Naruto's face. By that expression, it looked like their handsome Kiba wasn't the only one making Naruto question his sexuality.

Naruto came back to himself abruptly. "Right! Right. New years!" He glanced over at them nervously, and seemed relieved to see Kiba getting his new year's kiss from Hinata. "Kiba was fine with that, huh? Haha!"

Shino decided he still hadn't forgiven Naruto for his earlier attempt at bargaining. "Why wouldn't he be? It's not like she's his girlfriend or anything." Naruto squawked at that. "What? She's still a valuable member of Team 8, you know."

Hinata, finished giving Kiba his kiss, patted Shino's arm in an attempt to make him stop, but it was too late; Naruto looked shocked, offended, and slightly confused. "Happy- happy new year, Naruto!"

Naruto gave her a dazed grin, and waved. Hinata pulled out of Kiba's hold on her hips and went over to thank him for inviting them to the party. Sasuke took the opportunity to suddenly grab Kiba's arm; if Kiba was less drunk, he probably wouldn't have reacted to mildly.

"You're not dating Hinata?" He asked seriously. Shino's eyebrows shot up into his hairline.

Kiba, drunk and mellow, laughed. "What? No! I just like kissing her; she's my mate."

"So she isn't seeing anyone?"

Kiba seemed to realise he should be suspicious, and narrowed his eyes. "No…"

"Great." Sasuke left, heading over to Naruto and Hinata. He let Naruto pick him up off his feet in his 'first hug of 2015; giving, if not receiving'.

Kiba grabbed Shino's hand again and watched the fireworks with him. "Pretty."

"I'm sure Kurenai and Mirai and Akamaru are enjoying them too."

"Yeah. They're down on the riverbank, right?" Kurenai had taken Akamaru as a precaution on their insistence.

"Yes."

"… You think our parents are having an okay time?"

"Yes," Shino said again, smiling this time.

"Happy new year, mama!" Kiba yelled, throwing his free hand in the air. A couple people yelled in agreement, though most were too busy watching the fireworks.

"Happy new year dad," Shino said quietly.

"Kiba! Shino!" Hinata came trotting up to them, Pausing to turn and wave to Sasuke as he was dragged into the crowd by a whooping Naruto. Sasuke was much more interested in waving back at her than looking where he was going, and collided with one of Kiba's cousins. Giggling, Hinata turned back around and hugged them both. "Happy new year!"

"Happy new year Hinata," Shino said in return. Kiba just kissed the top of her head, his hand is Shino's and his arm around Hinata. As they watched the fireworks, greens and golds and reds lighting up the night sky to loud cheering, Shino thought that this year had been a good year. It had certainly been an eventful one, right up until the very end. Shino couldn't wait to see what this year had in store for them. "Let's spend this year together too," Shino said quietly

"Yeah!" Kiba and Hinata greed, apparently having heard him. Laughing, they heralded in the new year side by side.

–

Happy New Year! First fic of the year! Hurray!


End file.
